Austin Flint (1812–1886) was an American Physician who pioneered the study of heart disease. He held a chair in clinical medicine in New Orleans before moving to New York. From 1861 to 1868 he served as professor of pathology in Long Island College Hospital. The following excerpt is taken from Chapter 3 of Austin Flint, ed., Contributions Relating to the Causes and Prevention of Disease, and to Camp Diseases; Together with a Report a Report of the Diseases, etc. among the Prisoners at Andersonville, Ga. (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867). Published for the US Sanitary Commission.

The US Sanitary Commission was established in 1861, with its headquarters in Washington, DC, to support Union casualties. From 1863 its members organized fund-raising Sanitary Fairs. The Commission established hospitals and rest homes, continuing operation after the war. The official account of its activities is Charles J. Stille's History of the United States Sanitary Commission, Being the General Report of Its Work during the War of the Rebellion (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1866), at https://archive.org/details/ historyofuniteds00stiluoft.

The preface announces that the Commission ‘has not hesitated to criticize with the utmost freedom the policy and measures of the Government, where they seemed radically defective in providing for the care and comfort of the sick and suffering of the Army’ (v–vi).